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Title: Scientists Warn Indonesia's Rice Megaproject Faces Failure

Link: https://science.slashdot.org/story/25/04/05/0...

Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto's ambitious plan to create 1 million
hectares of new rice farms in eastern Merauke Regency faces strong criticism
from scientists who have warned it will fail due to unsuitable soils and
climate. Military "food brigades" are currently guarding bulldozers clearing
swampy forests in Indonesian New Guinea for the project, which aims to boost
food self-sufficiency for the nation's 281 million people. Soil scientists
warn that Merauke's conditions could lead to acidic soils unable to support
economically viable rice farming, potentially resulting in abandoned fields
vulnerable to wildfires. "Farmers will get no profit at all," said Dwi
Andreas, a soil scientist at Bogor Agricultural University who tested 12 rice
varieties in similar soils with poor results. The initiative mirrors past
failed megaprojects, including a 1990s attempt to convert 1 million hectares
of Borneo peatlands to rice paddies and a 2020 onion and potato farming
expansion in North Sumatra that saw 90% of fields abandoned. A previous 2010
attempt to expand rice farming in Merauke also failed, destroying forests
that Indigenous Papuans relied on and increasing childhood malnutrition,
according to anthropologist Laksmi Adriani.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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